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I wonder if this is a danger of being an indie author that I never considered:
Losing the shiny, new author effect.
Here me out on this strange ramble. A new author will come out like a lightning bolt with the right amount of marketing. They get attention and this is the shiny. It keeps going, but readers start dropping out as more books come out. Not everyone goes from Book 1 to Book 2 and so on. Add into this that the author has already emerged and has ‘shown their hand’ in terms of story and style. The curiosity is gone and you’ve done so many author interviews and guest blogs that you don’t know where else to go. You now have some tarnish and no publishing company to help you retain your freshness.
I’ve been thinking about this even though I’m still selling books. Definitely slower, so I can say that my ‘shininess’ isn’t as bright. In fact, a few debuting and aspiring authors have called me a veteran, which feels weird. Now I’m just talking like I’m an old man, but I’m definitely not the fresh-faced youth from a year ago. I’ll admit that I’m not that sure of what to do for marketing beyond the site ads. I feel like I’ve used up a lot of one-shot opportunities. Maybe I am feeling nothing more than old and a little worn around the edges.
I do remember at the beginning I was pouncing on guest blogs and interviews, but I’ve written on so many topics that I don’t know what to do there any more. Same with interviews. Maybe I launched out of the gate too quickly a year ago. I don’t even know what to do as a celebration of Beginning of a Hero being out for a year. Have I gotten sluggish and lazy?
So, what do you do when you aren’t as shiny as you once were? Besides accept it since it happens to everyone.
Legends of Windemere 
I read a post today about marketing ideas that were different from ads and effective. The questioner wanted to know what was effective based on upsales recorded and the author was a fantasy author, She said what helps her the most is events. She has her daughter dress like one of the characters in her series and they attend fantasy and sci-fi events. She claims she has sold in the thousands. Maybe you could get the toddler a costume. I don’t know if they have events for my genre.
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I’ve been eying those events, but without a physical book, I have trouble running a booth. They tend to happen later in the year though, so I might have the money to pull it off.
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Nothing can stay shiny forever, I guess. I think that there is a certain glory in the initial luster, like a person’s first time at falling in love. But like the first time, the luster fades, the love turns into more than just feeling, and the real road in life begins. I also think that there is a glory in the old, a faded luster of a different sort of value. I think of a fresh oak tree, young but strong and tall, and then I think of an old oak tree, more feeble yet more beautiful with age. It’s “sparkly luster,” so to speak, is gone, but its old brown bark holds within a hundred thousand stories of both human and animal alike. I just lean to appreciate the sparkle of things while they are new, and then I learn to appreciate their long-term value as I use them and integrate them into everyday life.
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Good advice and analogy. 🙂
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That’s awesome, and a great way to look at young and old.
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I was going to say something like “all that glitters is not gold.” But I have no idea where I was going with that.
Do you think it has anything to do with your books being a series, as opposed to totally separate works?
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I think a series has an effect. It means people can’t just jump in.
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You and I are in the same boat, brother. I self-published my first three books last year (in a trilogy) and I’m about to release a single title novella. I thought I’d be ecstatic about the one year anniversary from my debut, but not so much. There are so many new books coming out daily (especially in the romance genre), it’s hard to keep up!
Unfortunately I don’t have any imaginative advice for keeping shiny. But if you learn the secret…. please share!!
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I’m wondering if there’s any way to keep it. Might be to continue trudging on. I made it a year as an author with decent success, so that’s a plus. Maybe publishing is like a battlefield where you can’t get through without a few scars and dents.
Are you doing anything for the one year anniversary of your book?
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I was thinking of doing a blog tour for the entire trilogy, now that it’s all out, but I’m undecided. Why? You wanna have Twitter party? I don’t even know what that is exactly. Lmao. But it sounds like it’d be fun.
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I’m not sure either. Now I’m curious about Twitter parties. I’m aiming to release my 4th book a few days after the one-year. So much going on in a short period of time.
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I know. It’s almost impossible to keep up at the rate I was going last year! I think I was living off of an artificial high. It’s catching up to me now. I either need to find help or the number of books I put out in a year will decline significantly. Keep in mind, I’m working full time still. I’m whipped. I can’t stop, though. Love it too much.
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I’m trying to keep up the pace and all of my books coming out this year are at least in the first round of editing. My hope is to get the next ones ready and figure out a few more promo avenues. I’m hoping to look into one today and tomorrow that involves a podcast.
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Sounds interesting. Good luck with everything. If you decide on a Twitter party, don’t forget to invite me! 😀
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You got it. Once I figure out what it is. Maybe it’s like those Twubs Chat events. I tried to do one of those in November and it wasn’t very successful. Only two people got involved.
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You’d need a catchy hashtag and would have to try to generate interest before the party. I’ve have some success with my Street Team. Have you considered starting one? This week will be my first Author Takeover of a FB page. We’ll see how that goes. 🙂
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I’ve seen posts and comments about that. What is a Street Team?
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A group of people who help you promote your work in exchange for sneak peeks at your covers, blurbs and stories before the rest of the public.
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My team is called Christa Simpsons’ Twisted Sisters. Check it out. It’s a closed FB group. http://christasimpson.com/2013/10/30/join-my-street-team/
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I should definitely look into something like that. I do have friends who help promote book events, but the daily stuff is just me.
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It’s definitely handy. You can ask for help without coming off as needy or annoying on your author page. 😉 By joining, the members agree to be annoyed by you. Lol. It’s private too, which is nice. Some of your fans get to connect with you on a more personal level. My group is small, but I think it has been a success. 🙂
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Very cool. What do they do exactly? I think this is where I get confused because I’m not sure if it’s a ‘give weekly orders/requests’ or let the team do what they want to do to help.
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On occasion you ask them to share certain teasers, links, author news, etc. They can share and like your posts on FB so they get more views, etc. They RT for you (but the majority of my members aren’t on Twitter much). That sort of thing. The same thing your author friends would do for you anyway. I select my beta readers from this bunch. I also offer swag and ARCs of my books in exchange for honest reviews.
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I’ll have to sit down and figure out a plan to help with this. Sounds busy and I’m having trouble organizing myself lately.
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Once it’s set up it’s a breeze. 🙂
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I’m not really sure I know enough to be able to help you with this one, but have you tried querying imprints that specialize in fantasy writing? The fact that you have what I assume are some decent sales under your belt and therefore a following, might you be a good candidate for conventional publishing at this point…maybe? I don’t know, I’m just throwing that out there and could be completely off base.
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I’ve started looking, but all I find are ones that require an agent. It’s also hard to tell if I’m ready to give up some of the control that I get as an indie author. I see a lot of those who go through a small press are still working as hard as I am, but it’s a challenge to fix anything that comes up. It’s a big decision.
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From what I understand, of course this is not first hand experience, is that the environment has completely changed. Authors are expected to be marketing themselves constantly even with a more traditional publisher. I suppose this means book readings, book signing, tweeting, facebooking, lots of public appearances, probably much of what you are doing now except that there would be some kind of budget for doing this promotion along with whatever marketing the imprint would do on their own. It still would be a lot of work on your part, but at least they would foot the bill for the printing of physical books out of their budget instead of out of your pocket. Of course you obviously would have to get signed, but I suppose it never hurts to try.
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I’ve heard the same things, but I don’t think it’s as extreme as people say. At the very least, the bigger reach and the assistance of the publishing company would help a lot. Still, it seems an agent is needed to get anywhere and that tends to be my stumbling block. I’m terrible at query letters.
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Well I suppose the writing of query letters is a skill that can be learned. I hope to one day have to do some, but as yet I haven’t so anything I say is purely hypothetical. You would know about these far better than I.
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Takes practice and studying. I think a little luck helps too.
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You have your name which is branded and comes with a fan base, recommendations, and expectations. Then you always have the option of a pen name, when you want to feel new and shiny. 🙂
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I considered that once, but I can’t think of a good one. 🙂
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I feel that the trick is to sound like a real person and not like a pen name. Obvious pen names can be pretty entertaining though…
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That’s where I’d falter. I can’t keep up a decent front.
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Push yourself to write a great book, each and every time, so that even if your “shiny” wears off (and I love that term) there will be something substantial under the wrapper.
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That’s the plan. I just miss the shiny effect. 😦
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I know I started out wrong. Book prices too high, only three sales in the first four months, not enough advertising, etc. So I never had that ‘shiny’ feeling. Just accomplished the first time I held the paperback copy of my book. Maybe to celebrate your first year anniversary, you should read Beginning of a Hero. Just to read it and be entertained. Its just a thought, but I’ve been meaning to read on of my books. I feel like after I wrote them, I’ve kind of abandoned them. Though it might be different if you’re writing a series, since each story goes together.
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I’m thinking more of an outward celebration and I’ll be working on the 7th book by then. I do have to look it over at some point for a bit of refinement.
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Maybe a game of Dungeons and Dragons is in order, then?
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I’m thinking Goodreads Giveaway for February and a free day or two.
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Ah, good plan. 🙂
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I forget where I heard this. “First they love you. Then they hate you. But if you persevere they will come to respect you.”
Something else I have noticed over the years. Good products don’t need a lot of marketing; bad products do. If you focus too much on the marketing you tend to lose sight of the product, both as a producer and consumer.
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I think releasing series books does have an impact. First of all, if you are advertising a series, some of the sales you are seeing on your first couple of books may be from people who are looking at the advertising for your latest release, but want to start at the beginning ( no pun intended.)
Secondly, If you have people who were unimpressed with the first book or two, you might not see them return until yo release something else. People are fickle. As is this industry.
As far as losing the shiny goes, it happens to everyone. The best you can hope for is that at some point you will fulfill your ultimate goal. Perhaps a moment of self-examination–not your breasts, but your goals. Is money the ultimate goal, or is writing and sharing your work? Can you say that you have ever truly made it if you ever get Harry Potter sized rich? Can you say you’ve made it if you are not the name that comes up in everyone’s household?
Your goals have a lot to do with how you view your own success (level of shiny.) If you obsess over making every fan happy, you will become a turd. You can’t polish a turd. There goes the shiny. Evaluate what makes you feel shparkly and repeat that behaviour.
Also, I must respectfully disagree with the commenter above this, who said that a good product requires less marketing. How do we know that Dyson is the best vacuum? How did we all stumble on the Twilight Saga, regardless of how much fun is made of it? How do we know when a new restaraunt opens in our area or a new movie with our favourite actor is released? Marketing. Successful companies know that marketing is one head of the two-headed beast. All indie authors are salespeople, some are better at it than others.
A bad, poorly made product can have even more success than a better made one with the right marketing scheme. A wonderful, revolutionary product can have the same success. I do not see a difference in the overall effect. Marketing made them both famous, quality and public opinion will be the equaliser.
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I didn’t mean to imply that marketing was unnecessary. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that marketing is more effective for better products, so it will often require less marketing to get the same effect.
As for the OP, marketing to get people to come back to the series is different than marketing to get people to try the series. Selling something new is different than encouraging repeat business. Are you trying to get people who have not yet read book 1 to start the series? Or are you trying to get people who already read book 1 and 2 to buy book 3, and eventually 4?
Using the methods you have used so far will work (has worked) for the latter, but you will need different methods to reach a new audience to do the former. In particular, you will need to sell book 1 all over again to a new audience.. If they liked 1 & 2, then all you really need to do is let them know it was released and they will probably buy book 3. If they did not like 1 & 2, I doubt any amount of marketing will have much of an effect on getting them to buy book 3. But if they have never even read book 1, it is highly unlikely they will jump into the series at book 3.
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And I spelled restaurant wrong.
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